This invention relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to wireless communication systems using multiple antennas at the transmitter and one or more antennas at the receiver.
Wireless communication systems that use multiple antennas at the transmitter are commonly referred to as multiple-input systems. Space-time coding can be used in multiple-input systems to reduce the power needed to transmit information at a particular information data rate and still maintain a certain error rate.
Additionally, it is highly advantageous to employ channel coding in order to approach the maximum open loop capacity of a multiple-input system. (An open loop system is one where the channel characteristics are not fed back to the transmitter.) The state-of-the-art channel codes, e.g., turbo codes, trellis codes and the like, are typically spatially one dimensional, i.e., they are designed for only a single transmit antenna. A goal in the wireless communication industry is to employ such codes in a multiple-input system.